Electrified vehicles differ from conventional motor vehicles because electrified vehicles are selectively driven using one or more electric machines powered by a traction battery. The electric machines can drive the electrified vehicles instead of, or in addition to, an internal combustion engine. Example electrified vehicles include hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), and battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
The traction batteries of typical electrified vehicles include arrays of battery cells held within a protective enclosure. Relatively high loads, such as side impact loads to the electrified vehicle, can undesirably disturb the traction batteries even through the arrays are enclosed. The traction batteries can have a relatively large packaging footprint.